As the sophistication of taxi cabs, public safety vehicles, delivery trucks, fire trucks, emergency vehicles, and the like, continues to expand, so too does the need for more sophisticated mobile communication devices. For example, taxi-cab drivers have needs for communicating with central offices, remote databases, payment services, or other tracking databases. Police officers have myriad needs for communicating with other police officers, central command offices, or with criminal tracking databases, among other needs. Emergency personnel have needs for collecting medical or health diagnostics information, and quickly processing or communicating such information to others. Trucking or delivery companies have needs for monitoring or dispatching fleets of vehicles. Some vehicles have needs to communicate and process information from passengers or other people within the vehicle or in the near vicinity. Automation is an important aspect of processing such information because a driver must be able to concentrate on the road, or other tasks at hand, without compromising the quality or reliability of the communications.
Moreover, physical space within a vehicle is limited and commands a premium. Conventional approaches require the use of bulky and cumbersome devices, which consume valuable vehicle space. Attempts to provide reliable and effective in-vehicle communication devices and services have resulted in frustration, loss of revenue, and in the extreme cases, loss of life. Some approaches include using multiple separate devices that are networked in a “science project” fashion, which often fail to reliably interoperate one with another. Such approaches can lead to drained car batteries, particularly after the vehicle has been shutdown, or otherwise cause unintended shorts, hardware or software crashes, and other problems.
Standard communication systems are limited in their ability to communicate in difficult-to-reach communication areas. Such systems and devices also lack the ability to effectively provide short-range communication or computing services, and bridge the services together in a cohesive, automated, and compact device. While there have been a number of systems directed toward assisting in vehicle-related communications, there remains a need for a versatile, compact, and user-friendly apparatus and system, which can assist taxi-cab drivers, law enforcement, emergency personnel, trucking companies, delivery companies, and the like, in easily communicating between vehicles and remote command centers, or monitoring fleets of vehicles.
There also remains a need for assisting persons or devices that are within the vehicle, or proximally located to the vehicle, with communicating or processing needs. There is a particular need for an apparatus that supports both wired and wireless communication ports for various devices for use by persons within the vehicle or located about the vehicle. There is also a need for an apparatus that can interface with external devices to connect and transmit information and data. There also remains a need for a mobile in-vehicle apparatus that can automatically monitor the conditions of the vehicle battery and otherwise safe-guard the mobile apparatus and the vehicle battery.
Accordingly, needs remain for an improved mobile in-vehicle communication and routing apparatus, system, and method.
The foregoing and other features of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.